please help! Know a good NYC traffic lawyer?!

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I got a ticket today because I moved from the far left lane (which was turn only) into the lane next to me to go straight. There were no cars coming. A cop gave me a ticket for reckless driving! Which is really for people who speed really fast, drive the wrong way on a street, etc. It is a criminal charge and you can get a misdeamoner on your criminal record for it! It also carries 5 points, so my insurance would skyrocket. I am so upset. My driving record is clean right now and I will do anything to get rid of this.

Does anyone have any advice? I want to get a traffic lawyer to fight it for me since they have more experience (any recs??!) but my fiance says I should just do it myself. I really don't want to risk it.

Member

I got a ticket today because I moved from the far left lane (which was turn only) into the lane next to me to go straight. There were no cars coming. A cop gave me a ticket for reckless driving! Which is really for people who speed really fast, drive the wrong way on a street, etc. It is a criminal charge and you can get a misdeamoner on your criminal record for it! It also carries 5 points, so my insurance would skyrocket. I am so upset. My driving record is clean right now and I will do anything to get rid of this.

Does anyone have any advice? I want to get a traffic lawyer to fight it for me since they have more experience (any recs??!) but my fiance says I should just do it myself. I really don't want to risk it.

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Nine times out of ten the cop who ticketed you won't even bother to show up to court, but you may be the tenth person that day. If you want to risk it, just show up and plead not guilty. If the charges aren't dropped because the cop did show, then you'll need a lawyer.

I don't know about NY, but in California what you would have been ticketed for would have been unsafe lane change. (My first ticket ever was for this very same thing! I was in the left lane to turn onto a new street and I realized I needed to go up one more block, so I got over back into the traffic. I didn't notice I crossed a double yellow line to do that, and there was a cop behind me. I was also cited for driving barefoot, which got dropped in court, since this was the 70's and EVERYONE my age drove barefoot!! HA!)

But if you go and plead innocent, they'll set a court date for you. And again, he MUST show up that day for that to happen. Chances are he'll miss one at least.

Member

My friend used a lawyer named Deborah or Debra in NYC and he had everything dismissed, my friend used her services three times. And no points were given in each case.

I'll call him tomorrow to get a phone number if you're interested. Luckily NY isn't as tough as NJ, another friend lost $500 to a Hoboken lawyer who didn't accomplish anything. She had to pay the ticket, court costs, and got points.